Trump Victory Changes Everything! Or does it?
The election of Donald J. Trump was met with panic by some education “experts,” and with elation by others.
Americans have become used to big government. Too many are told what to do by the government, or they wait for handouts and breaks from the feds.
A president isn’t a king, and the federal government should assume neither a big brother, nor a parental, nor a dictatorial role.
That isn’t the Constitution’s plan for America. And it certainly isn’t the way the education of our children should work.
But the executive branch has increasingly controlled education, particularly under Barack Obama and George Bush. Bush and the late Senator Ted Kennedy cooked up the disastrous No Child Left Behind.
There is currently post-election handwringing by both Democrats and Republicans. Many are concerned that president-elect Trump cannot end Common Core. And he can’t!
Common Core is a scam, written by educrats, misunderstood by many, pushed on states through improper use of “stimulus package” money in the form of Race to the Top competitions and grants. President Obama and former Education Secretary Arne Duncan had no business cajoling cash-strapped states to adopt Common Core standards. Gurus at various think tanks had no business calling them state-led. Billionaires like Bill Gates had no business funding Trump Victory Changes Everything! Or does it? agents like the Fordham Institute and the Chamber of Commerce to promote the standards. Media outlets should have investigated and reported the truth instead of parroting what they were told.
Some are lamenting the Every Student Succeeds Act that some believe will rein in the Department of Education. They are unhappy because now a Republican Secretary of Education can’t say “Zap!” and Common Core disappears. But even before ESSA, the federal government wasn’t where Common Core needs to be halted.
It’s up to individual states to clean up the mess. Those who promoted Common Core should be viewed with suspicion. Those who propped it up in the face of parental revolt against it should be ashamed of themselves, and should apologize to parents and to students.
Those in charge of education in states and in counties who still refuse to take immediate action to right the wrongs attributed to Common Core should be challenged and taken to task.
Education Reporter and many others have been writing about this for years, exposing the scandalous ways of those who promoted Common Core, as well as expressing what parents see and know is wrong with Common Core and how it is harming children.
Particularly heinous are those who insisted that testing, testing, and more testing was good for our children. Those who pushed for big data — invasive record-keeping and data mining that follows children from cradle to grave — should be forced out of the education sphere. The same goes for those who refused to allow parents to opt their children out of the damaging and unnecessary testing. Those who sought to put a computer screen in every child’s hands and to diminish the importance of quality teachers should apologize and back away from education — fast.
President-elect Trump has appointed Betsy DeVos to head the Department of Education. She would do well to deconstruct the department, making it an organization that attempts to facilitate rather than manage American education.
Some are fearful because DeVos has associated with organizations that support Common Core. But her own response about Common Core is quite clear: “I am not a supporter — period.”
If DeVos fails to rein in federal intrusion into education, she will have failed. If she promotes unwieldy for-profit charter schools that operate in an uncontrolled manner and without local oversight, she will be contributing to the further decline of public education. Those who truly care about children agree that charter schools should not be “for profit” and they should receive oversight from elected officials, not just rich philanthropists or others with clout.
The new Education Secretary has supported vouchers, which allow students the option of choosing private schools and have some governmental financial support to pay tuition. This gives decision-making options to parents, which is a good thing.
Teachers union executives have come out firmly against the appointment of DeVos. Perhaps no higher recommendation for her potential success is possible.
In her post-nomination statement she said: “Above all, I believe every child, no matter their zip code or their parents’ jobs, deserves access to a quality education.”
At the very least parents and students will be spared continuation of the hasty march toward federal control of educational matters that would have occurred had Hillary Clinton won the presidency.
Protesting Reality: Children, College Students & Educators
Los Angeles elementary school-age children, some who looked to be as young as seven, were in the streets using their limited strength to bash a baseball bat into a 6-foot-tall Donald Trump piñata hanging from a street light on Saturday the 12th of November. The crowd that blocked a city street included adults standing in a circle around the kids, cheering them on. Seen written on a sign held in the background is the word “love.”
This is the Left. The Los Angeles crowd is representative of people protesting and in some cases rioting in the streets for over a week after the 45th president of the United States was elected.
Police reported that on Saturday, 8,000 people in Los Angeles protested the election. The previous day, 1,000 people marched, and according to police, 187 adults and eight juveniles were arrested. Area protesters swarmed the 101 freeway, shutting it down to traffic.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported that the leftist community organizing group MoveOn.org “had called on people to gather in cities nationwide.” The report says Ben Wikler, MoveOn’s Washington director, said that “people had registered to organize events in 275 cities and communities across the country.” (11-11-16)
There were protests and disruptions of varying sizes in almost every major U.S. city, including Denver, New York City, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Chicago, as well as in many smaller U.S. cities. Many of the demonstrators are young adults and college students, with initial gathering places often college campuses from which protests have swarmed outward into surrounding areas. There were calls posted on social media in some cities to locate protests in “whiter” and wealthier areas.
In downtown San Francisco, a 15-year-old sophomore from Academy High School joined protesters who waved Mexican flags and “gay” rainbow flags, while chanting “not my president.” The high school student said, “As a white, queer person, we need unity with people of color. We need to stand up.”
Across the bay in Oakland, California, about 7,000 protesters set a police car on fire, smashed windows, and set a fire in a federal building along with about 40 other fires.
Many college campuses issued statements of support to students upset by the election outcome. Administrators made counseling and “safe space” available. Professors cancelled classes and tests, and allowed students to turn in work late.
Portlandia
In Portland, Oregon, a protest “turned into a seething riot as baseball-bat-wielding anarchists took aim at plate-glass windows, windshields, and electrical power boxes.” Mayor Charlie Hales initially said, “We’re a proud liberal city.”
But after four nights of vandalism and violence, Mayor Hales expressed frustration, saying, “Going to the streets for another night is not going to keep Donald Trump from taking office. It isn’t going to change anything.” He continued: “Get involved. But don’t come participate in a protest in downtown Portland that has been taken over the last three nights by people who simply want to fight with police.”
Portland police issued the following on Twitter: “Due to extensive dangerous and criminal behavior, protest is now considered a riot. Crowd has been advised.”
Police reported protesters threw burning road flares and other projectiles at them, including rocks and bottles. The roving groups closed down light rail and obstructed traffic. On Saturday night, two 18-year-old men were arrested after another man was reportedly shot while sitting in his vehicle.
On Saturday night alone, 71 protesters were arrested in Portland, according to police. None of these were Republicans or Donald Trump supporters.
The chairman of the Oregon Republican Party said the mayor had lost control, urged his resignation, and called on the governor to bring in the National Guard to restore order. (Washington Post, 11-13-16)
Flags Burned in D.C.
At American University in Washington, D.C., students burned U.S. flags the day after the election. Some shouted obscenities, including “F— white America!” There were students carrying Black Lives Matter signs. There was also a small counter-protest of students shouting “U.S.A!” and trying to grab flags away before they were burned. A sophomore from Pennsylvania felt shocked by the scene. Lindsay Petelinkar voted for Hillary Clinton but said the protest shocked her and that she was very “uncomfortable.” She said she knows it’s a liberal campus but expressed alarm that “student[s] at my university would be willing to burn our nation’s flags and be happy about it and say this is a revolution.” (Washington Post, 11-9-16)
Reporters Take Heat in Virginia
In Richmond, Virginia, twelve protesters were arrested on Wednesday night when about 1,000 people swarmed onto highways at the I-64 and I-95 interchange. Anti-Donald Trump demonstrators shut down traffic and chanted “obscenities and vulgarities directed at the Republican” president-elect. All those arrested in Richmond were between the ages of 18 and 25.
Virginia Commonwealth University junior Bailey Biggs, who claims to be a transsexual, was upset because Vice President-elect Mike Pence has supported conversion therapy, which helps those who decide against being gay or transsexual. Biggs said, “I’m not okay with that. I’m not going back into the closet. … I’m out here. I’m proud to be a transgender male, and I’m proud to not want Donald Trump as my president. He’s not my president.”
In Richmond, “on multiple occasions TV journalists reporting on the protest were bombarded with protesters who leaped in front of the reporters while jumping around and screaming vulgarities into the cameras while laughing.” No journalists were badly injured. Protesters closed down city streets and defaced Civil War monuments. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 11-10-16)
Iowa High School Walk-Outs
In Iowa, “hundreds of students walked out of several Des Moines-area high schools Wednesday morning in protest of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory.” Students chanted “Let’s Dump Donald Trump” and obscenities. Some chanted in Spanish. Des Moines schools allowed the protests but students received unexcused absences from class.
At Des Moines East High School, several hundred students left classes and left the school to march around the neighborhood, while teachers tried to get them to return. Students chanted, “No Justice, No Peace,” and some held up Mexican flags. Most eventually returned to class. (Des Moines Register, 11-9-16)
Durham, NC: School Employees and Students Protest
Schoolchildren were involved in protests in Durham, North Carolina. A concrete floor was covered by 20 feet of student-created anti-Trump posters. One child’s work said: “Donalb Trump is not our presibent” (sic). (The child needs to practice the alphabet and learn the difference between a “b” and a “d.”)
One of the protest organizers is Bryan Proffitt, president of the Durham Association of Educators, a National Education Association teachers union affiliate. After railing about president-elect Trump’s plan to build a border wall, Proffitt asked, “Doesn’t that make y’all angry?” He continued, saying, “Our safety is not predicated on us being quiet. Our safety is based on being loud.”
Another protester was Michelle Burton, a Durham County Public Schools librarian. Burton said “a Hispanic fifth-grader at her elementary school told her, ‘My mom believes God will take care of everything but she’s also worried that she’s not a citizen and she doesn’t want to go to El Salvador because the schools are bad.’” Burton said she didn’t know what to say to the child. That’s sad. Burton could have told the child that the plan is only to deport criminals so if her mother has obeyed the law, all will be well. Maybe Burton hadn’t bothered to read any of the Republican candidate’s policies and relied solely on news-media rhetoric.
Duke University student Jazmynne Williams said at the Durham protest, “Make some noise if you’re a person of color who’s not going to sit down for Donald Trump,” She continued, “Make some noise if you’re white and feel like ending racism is going to make your life better.” (News Observer, 11-13-16) Has Jazmynne been taught that Republicans do not want to end racism?
What Do Protesters Want?
Perhaps some misconceptions can be tied to the Obama administration’s overreach, imperial rulings, and strutting into arenas where they had no business issuing orders. A president isn’t supreme ruler and some may have forgotten that isn’t how our republic works.
What is it those who have taken to the streets want or expect to happen? Some are after chaos and wish to promote anarchy. Some protesters want the election to be voided.
Rachel Walerstein, a protester in Iowa, said her goal “is to make a statement of political instability, to render it difficult to govern, and in particular, to make it impossible for Trump to implement his policies in the first 100 days.”
What Does the Rioting Prove?
Protests by those unwilling to accept the election results and those unable to understand the American system of government only serve as evidence of several things that some Americans have already been saying:
1. Many college campuses have become hotbeds of leftism.
2. Some college students are so used to being protected from differences of opinion that opposition to their viewpoint is intolerable.
3. Leftist ideology has infiltrated even K-12 schools.
4. Civics education must return to pub- lic schools.
In a broader sense, these riots also demonstrate a need to restore law and order, including respect for law enforcement; a need for immigration reform, to rid the nation of criminal illegal aliens; and that gender activism needs to be reined in to some degree.
Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who didn’t support Trump might look forward to his presidency with some skepticism. But most haven’t taken to protesting and rioting. Most people are busy working and raising their families. Many of them might reserve an even greater skepticism for those who take to the streets.
To those who supported him, Trump’s win represents a chance to restore jobs, dignity for all, the rule of law, and hope. Trump supporters of all races and creeds and parties are tired of being called racist, bigoted, homophobic, and xenophobic. They’re through being thrown into a “basket of deplorables” by elitist politicians, corrupt or incompetent pundits, bureaucrats, and ideologues who have invaded our schools.
Fox News’ Megyn Kelly has had her own run-ins with Donald Trump. But in an appearance on Kelly Ripa’s talk show on Wednesday after the election, she offered calming words. After saying we all need to pray for President-elect Trump who has a difficult job ahead of him, she continued:
We go through this electoral process, we get battered and bruised but at the end of it we do accept the result. We get behind our President. We can fight still, there can be disagreements on policy and you can criticize positions or language but we all share the same basic core values as Americans.
This is quite true.
Paul Austin Murphy wrote in American Thinker on November 12:
Let’s face facts. Liberals/Leftists have a serious problem with democracy. Of course, most people already know that. …Democracy is all fine and dandy when it goes the right way – when it delivers exactly what these people want. When it goes in the wrong direction, then there’s violence and talk of revolution…….They accept democracy when it goes the way they want it to go. When it doesn’t, they’re against it.
Recreational Marijuana Wins
Even as new studies were released showing more possible harmful effects of marijuana, voters approved recreational marijuana ballot measures in three more U.S. states. California, Nevada, and Massachusetts bypassed legislators and passed ballot measures approving recreational marijuana. In Maine, the bill passed by such a slim margin that a recount is likely. In Arizona, legalization of pot was defeated by 52% to 48%.
The candy-like items containing potent cannabis chemicals already sold in states like Colorado have been found to be dangerous to children who can ingest the drug accidentally or on purpose.
A spokesman for Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an organization hoping to keep the drug illegal, claims, “Despite having gained considerable ground in the last few weeks, the out-of-state interests determined to make money off of legalization put in too much money to overcome.”
Passage of California’s Proposition 64 allows the growing, transporting, and retail selling of marijuana to individuals, who will be able to legally possess up to one ounce of pot and grow up to six marijuana plants. There will be a 15% excise tax on marijuana purchased at state-licensed stores.
Supporters of legalization don’t just want access to the drug, they are also after the cash flow that comes to state coffers where marijuana is legal.
The Center for Tax Policy projected passage in California to raise $646 million per year for the state. Taxes raised will increase governmental programs. The first $25 million is to be spent on health and law enforcement expenses. Of the rest, 60% will be allotted to youth drug education and treatment, and 20% to “driving under the influence programs,” with the remaining 20% going to “environmental programs.”
Four states and the District of Columbia already allowed recreational use of marijuana: the states are Alaska, Oregon, Colorado, and Washington.
As states relax cannabis laws, it becomes more difficult for federal anti-drug measures to be enforced. The Obama administration has chosen a “hands-off” approach to prosecution, although marijuana is still illegal in the eyes of the federal government. The Drug Enforcement Agency classifies marijuana, like heroin, as a Schedule 1 controlled substance.
There are studies showing that marijuana has a negative impact on development of the brains of children and young adults. A new study at the University College of London (UCL) found links between “low enthusiasm” and use of cannabis. “Thinking that it’s harmless, that you can smoke cannabis and you’ll be fine, is a false assumption,” said Michael Bloomfield, a UCL psychiatry professor and one of the study’s authors. Bloomfield continues, “THC (the mind-altering chemical in pot) alters how willing you are to try things that are more difficult.”
Another study presented at the annual scientific conference of the American Heart Association in New Orleans in November suggests marijuana use can weaken heart muscles, particularly in young men. The study by researchers from St. Luke’s University Hospital Network found increased reports of heart attack and stroke, as well as stress cardiomyopathy in marijuana users, a condition that sometimes includes the need for an implanted cardiac defibrillator.
They tracked outcomes of 33,343 admissions from 2003-2011. Medical marijuana is legal in over half of states. (Wall Street Journal, 9-15-16 and 10-26-16) (Washington Post, 11-8-16) (CNN, 11-14-14)
Charter Schools Lose & Win
Although about 32,000 Massachusetts students are on waiting lists and hoped to attend charter schools in that state, voters defeated a November ballot initiative that would have raised existing caps, thereby allowing the state board of education to approve up to 12 new charter schools annually or increase enrollment in existing charter schools.
Charter schools are public schools run under a “charter,” which typically spells out their goals, operating procedures, and methods of instruction. In Massachusetts, “charter schools are independent public schools that operate under five-year charters granted by the Commonwealth’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.” If a charter school fails to meet its goals, the state board of education can close it down.
Unofficial election returns show that 6 in 10 voters rejected the proposal, although supporters spent more than $24 million to promote it, more than has ever been spent before on any ballot issue in the state. Teachers unions contributed most of the $14 million spent in a successful effort to defeat the measure. Teachers unions argue that charter schools drain funds from public schools. It’s a somewhat illogical complaint because those students aren’t there for them to educate, and charter schools spend significantly less money per pupil than traditional public schools.
Only 4% of Massachusetts students attend public charter schools and now that number won’t increase anytime soon. Backers had hoped for greater charter availability, particularly in areas where traditional public schools are failing to adequately educate children.
Charters are equally or more successful and innovative than traditional schools. Some charter schools don’t do a great job educating students, just as some traditional public schools fall short of that goal.
Some see charter schools as having a positive impact. Mark Powell is an elected representative on the San Diego County Board of Education, with experience teaching, as a vice principal, a dean of students in the district, and a professor at National University’s School of Teacher Education. Powell says:
“Well-run charter schools create competition, and competition can trigger low-performing schools to improve. Rather than simply providing an alternative to neighborhood public schools for a few students, school choice also benefits students remaining in their neighborhood schools, because competition motivates schools and school districts to respond to the loss of students and the revenues students bring, producing a rising tide, and a rising tide lifts all boats.”
In San Diego County there are 753 traditional public schools and 120 charter schools, so about 16% of students attend charter schools there.
In August, comedian John Oliver (who considers himself a political activist) launched an attack on charter schools on his HBO television show called “Last Week Tonight.” Many school choice advocacy groups disagree with his sweeping criticisms.
The Center for Education Reform (CER) says HBO and Oliver “leveled a very unfair, unfortunate, unbalanced, unwarranted, and generally unhinged tirade against charter schools.” This episode of the show has been seen by more than five million people and is being used as “propaganda” against charter schools.
CER launched a campaign that allowed charter schools to respond to the attack. They invited schools to create videos titled, “Hey, John Oliver! Back Off My Charter School.” Over 250 schools submitted videos in response. They are available to view on YouTube and they feature students showcasing various features and benefits available at their schools.
On November 14, CER awarded the Natomas Charter School in Sacramento, California, the winning prize of $100,000. The Natomas video features children from elementary through high school explaining the benefits of their school. Natomas serves 1,574 students and opened in 1993. Honorable mention winners include schools in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, and Tennessee.
Charter schools operate in all but eleven states. (Education Week, 11-11-16) (EdReform.com, 11-14-16) (VoiceofSanDiego.org, 11-17-16)
Education Briefs
Majonica Haithcox, a teacher at Shepard Middle School in Durham, NC, was suspended from her eighth-grade language arts teaching duties after she yelled at and used “foul language” to chastise a classroom full of children after the election of Donald Trump. “Tell your parents. I’ll call them on the phone and cuss them out, too,” she said. She ended her tirade, which a student caught on cell-phone video, saying, “Maybe they’ll give you some white teachers that care about y’all.” It’s unclear why the teacher blamed children — who cannot vote. One student said her teacher was usually “nice” but that “her anger came out on us.” (CBS, 11-11-16)
A University of Louisiana Lafayette student who is Muslim admitted she “fabricated” her claim that two white men, one wearing a “Trump” hat, robbed her and tore off her hijab face covering the morning after the election. In a separate story, a Muslim San Diego State University student, also wearing a hijab, says one white and one Hispanic man robbed her in a campus stairwell Wednesday afternoon, made comments about Donald Trump, then stole her backpack, and eventually her car. This is being investigated as a hate crime. (Washington Post, 11-10-16)
A Houston television station reports that police and child protective services are investigating an area mother who berated and scolded her young son for voting for Donald Trump in his school’s mock election. Disturbed viewers contacted Texas authorities after the woman posted a video of the incident on Facebook, where it was viewed more than ten million times. The young African-American boy and his little brother wail and sob as the mother berates him, saying, “I’m gonna show you. We don’t do Donald Trump here.” Then she forced him onto the street with a suitcase she packed, holding a sign she made that says he is a Trump supporter. (KHOU.com, 11-11-16)
Book of the Month
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth, Scribner, 2016, $28
Angela Duckworth is a former high school teacher and a psychological researcher who has found that talent, IQ, or circumstances can sometimes be less important to success than perseverance or “grit.”
Her tactics include a ten-question “grit scale” that measures how committed individuals are to their activities or goals. Having worked with children and adults — West Point recruits, Army Green Berets, and even Spelling Bee finalists, Duckworth claims: “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.”
Everyone knows about someone of high intellect or great talent who never managed to achieve their potential. Duckworth helps explain why some fail to achieve as much as they seemingly could. Her work is valuable in that it proves that perseverance matters.
The author demonstrates ways in which parents, teachers, and coaches can encourage children to develop skills and positive character traits such as perseverance, dedication, aspiration, and a hopeful outlook.
As a teacher, Duckworth noticed students who didn’t perform well in school, yet were knowledgeable and capable in areas that interested them, other than school work. And there’s the rub — education trends sometimes fail to engage students. This can happen, for example, when schools feed students bits of fine literature rather than supplying the entire work as the author intended. Educators then wonder why students aren’t engaged and fail to show interest.
Duckworth explains that it’s okay to struggle, as did the prolific author John Irving, who overcame dyslexia. Irving has said: “I have confidence in my stamina to go over something again and again no matter how difficult it is.” He attributes his ability to create great novels to his dedication to rewriting until he’s absolutely satisfied with his work.
The word “grit” is sometimes hijacked by educrats, those ivory tower bureaucrats and high-tech billionaires who try to dilute content, turn students to screen learning, devalue teachers, and fail to understand the needs of individual students.
There is much to be learned from Duckworth’s research. But teachers and parents should be alert and cautious whenever they hear the word grit. They should also be aware that too much focus on it can do more harm than good.
When working with children, everyone must be certain to allow for failure, imperfection, and sometimes even backing away from what might have once seemed to be an important goal of an individual child. Their aspirations change — and that’s okay.
FOCUS: Progress? It’s Back to Segregation
‘This can only be described as dumbing down of the population.’
by Leo Hohmann
First published at WND.com on August 9, 2016. Reprinted with permission.
An Illinois college has defended its restriction of portions of a mandatory course to black students even though part of the stated goal of the class is to teach students “an appreciation for diversity.” But the case appears to be part of a larger trend of “black only” zones on U.S. college campuses.
In the most recent case, the mother of a student said she and her son noticed something strange in the course description for “College 101” while registering at Moraine Valley Community College.
“We noticed that the required course College 101 has two sections limited to African-American students,” the concerned parent told the Chicago Tribune. “He wants to know why there are not two sections limited to Asian-American students? How about Native-American students?”
The College 101 class “provides an opportunity to assess your purpose for college, assess your study strategies, set college and career goals, examine your values and decision-making skills, and develop an appreciation for diversity,” according to the course catalog.
“While peer support may improve success rates among African-American students, the reverse is not necessarily also true,” wrote the Tribune’s Ted Slowik. He continued, “Imagine the outrage if, in this day and age, students registering for classes were confronted with sections designated ‘whites only.’” Slowik says he does support segregated programs for blacks because of inequalities in the K-12 education system that often denies blacks an education of equal quality and, therefore, leaves them less prepared for college.
Blacks are less likely to be as well prepared as whites, according to Slowik, because of the “achievement gap” in public schools and, therefore, they deserve special attention to help them succeed in college.
Not all agree.
Alex Newman, co-author with the late Samuel Blumenfeld of Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians are Using Government Schools to Destroy America’s Children, said it’s no longer unusual to see these types of outrageous courses being taught on college campuses.
“This sounds like yet another example of collectivism gone wild in the so-called education system, which is almost becoming a parody of itself with these kinds of absurdities,” Newman told WND.
And if you think the absurdities start at the college level, think again, Newman said.
“Americans need to understand that this otherwise fringe ideology and extremism is now thoroughly embedded throughout the education system, from pre-K through university. Schools are no longer really doing what normal people understand as education or academics,” Newman said.
“Instead, they are increasingly involved in indoctrination, social engineering, and what can only be described as the dumbing down of the population,” he added. “Unfortunately, as we document in Crimes of the Educators, it is true that the government’s miseducation system has harmed black Americans even more than others, although all Americans have suffered from it.”
But the remedy is not more of the same “racialist, collectivist, leftist poison,” he said.
And it’s not just happening at Moraine.
Fox News reported earlier this year that the University of Connecticut was implementing a “bold” new strategy to help boost its abysmal graduation rates for black males. The plan involves the clustering of 40 black male students in a portion of one dorm, no whites or Asians allowed, in what the university calls a “learning community.”
Proponents believe the students can draw on their “common experiences” and help each other make it to commencement, Fox reported, while others cringe at the idea of “black-only” housing, saying it overturns decades of hard-fought racial progress.
Horace Cooper of Project 21 told OneNewsNow that he questions how the University of Connecticut housing policy differs from the Jim Crow laws of the Deep South, where blacks were blocked by whites from using the same public water fountains and were sent to a blacks-only public school.
There is no difference, Cooper says, between a Jim Crow segregationist and a “progressive” professor claiming that black-only segregation is good. “The truth of the matter is, it is absolutely dividing people along racial lines,” he told OneNewsNow.
At UCLA, the Afrikan Student Union is insisting upon an “Afrikan Diaspora floor” as well as an “Afro-house,” the College Fix reported.
A group called WeDemand.org has a list of hundreds of “demands” made by black student movements at universities across the country. Many of the demands include calls for major reductions in white faculty and separate “safe spaces” for black students.
For example, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, black students seem to be calling for a return to racial policies that were phased out years ago, stating that they “DEMAND that the Black Student Movement (BSM) reclaim control of the Upendo Lounge in the Student and Academic Services Building. As early as 1972, BSM had its own space in Chase Hall, called the Upendo Lounge; however, Chase Hall was demolished in 2003, and BSM currently does not have a meeting place under their complete jurisdiction.”
Alex Newman pointed to another case of college race-baiting at the University of Missouri last November. After university president Tim Wolfe was forced to resign over his handling of alleged racism on campus, the “concerned student organization” that fomented the resignation asked its white supporters to leave so they could have a “blacks only healing zone.” NewsFoxes confirmed that “white individuals had formed a separate group upstairs.” NewsFoxes suggested, “It’s time for the education system to get back to teaching and real academics.”
Newman said. “American taxpayers expect schools and community colleges to educate children and young adults as unique individuals, not indoctrinate them with collectivist race-mongering or segregate them based on arbitrary characteristics like the melanin content of their skin. This extremism at Moraine Valley Community College is just the tip of an iceberg of insanity pervading all of America’s so-called education system. It’s time for real change.”
But Jessica Crotty, Moraine’s assistant director of communications, made the case for segregation, saying the school periodically reserves certain course offerings for various demographics of students, including veterans.
“Sometimes we set aside sections for specific populations, including veterans and older students,” Crotty told the Tribune.
“The focus can be on specific issues they face,” she explained. “For example, veterans face a specific set of challenges.” But being older than most other students or being a veteran isn’t related to race.
Racial Segregation in Public Schools is Illegal
Carl Gallups, a Christian pastor, popular author, and radio host, said the actions by Moraine are not only morally suspect but patently illegal, given the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision 60 years ago that racial segregation in public education is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
In the landmark 1954 case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, the Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal schooling was not acceptable.
“In typical and hypocritically liberal fashion the [Moraine] course description says that it will help the black students develop an ‘appreciation for diversity.’ The course description and the course’s requirement of the separation of the races are oxymoronic,” said Gallups, author of Be Thou Prepared and Final Warning.
Could that same same logic then be used, Gallups asks, for a class offered in “white history,” only for white students, and designed to help them appreciate diversity in order to more adequately assimilate into college life? “Can you imagine the outrage?”
And, Gallups wonders, what does this course say to the new black student on the university campus?
Gallups says he thinks it tells black students: “You’re not equipped for campus life yet, so we’re gonna give you some remedial training right from the start. You need some special help because you’re black. No other racial group needs this special attention.”
To add further insult to the matter are university officials, like those at Moraine, who justify segregation with claims such as: “Students feel comfortable and are more likely to open up because they’re with other students who are like them.”
Gallups asks, “But, wasn’t that the same argument used by the racist elements in the United States before the 1950s who were opposed to black students integrating within their schools?”
He continues: “Wasn’t their argument, which was ultimately deemed to be blatantly racist, exactly the same argument this university is now making in 2016? Of course it is. It appears this university has gone down the same road, perhaps with initial good intentions, but the same road nonetheless.”
Leo Hohmann is a news editor for WND where he covers a wide variety of issues including immigration, education, and religion. He is author of the forthcoming book Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest through Immigration and Resettlement Jihad, scheduled for release in January.
